Impression, the reimagined ’36 Ford roadster built by Chip Foose, is the finest hot rod ever built, some will say. In this video, Chip points out its amazing details.

“You’re only as good as your customer allows you to be,” Chip Foose says his dad, fellow rod builder Sam Foose, once told him. Indeed. In the world of ultra-high-end custom hot rods, where builds can require millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours, often the most difficult part is finding a patron with the the patience and the deep, deep pockets required to see it through to completion.

This echoes what another top builder, Troy Trepanier, told us about competing for top hot rod honors like the Ridler Award and the AMBR, America’s Most Beautiful Roadster. Among his many accolades, Troy won the Ridler Award in 2007. So what’s the key ingredient in these over-the-top projects, we asked him. “A customer,” he answered in a heartbeat.

Impression, the highly stylized ’36 Ford designed and built by Foose for Ken and Leila Reister, won the Ridler Award in 2005 and the AMBR Award in 2006, more than a decade ago, but it still represents a high-water mark in custom show rods. Other cars may match it in design and execution, critics say, but it may not ever be surpassed. A ’36 Ford in name only, Impression was totally reimagined by Foose from the ground up. There isn’t a single component on it that doesn’t serve his all-embracing design theme (roughly, a Reuleaux triangle.) In this video walk-through of the car, Chip explains a number of its incredible details. Watch this.